Khonshu possesses various mystical abilities, including the power to raise the dead. He has formerly acted on Earth through the body of his servant Marc Spector, sometimes inhabiting his physical form and granting him superhuman strength. He can appear to Spector as illusions, assuming other peoples forms. He is also able to teleport.

Khonshu is one of the Gods of Celestial Heliopolis, worshiped by the ancient Egyptians, in ancient times, Khonshu posed as a human pharaoh in the city of Thebes, the seat of worship for Ammon-Ra, presumably at the same time Osiris posed as a mortal ruler. Khonshu was also described as a mentor of Horus the Younger and may have been the sun-gods teacher and protector as Seth over threw Osris as pharaoh. The power shift in Heaven and on Earth resulted in Osiris subsequently becoming god of the dead, and Khonshu ascended into the role of god of the moon, ousting Thoth from that role. Thoth then became god of wisdom and magic vizier to Osiris. Khonshu allegedly dictated his will on Earth to legendary Egyptian intellectual Imhotep.

In the modern age, archaeologists Peter Alraune Sr., and his daughter Marlene uncovered a statue of Khonshu within Pharaoh Seti's tomb. When mercenary Raoul Bushman raided the dig and killed Marlene's father, Bushman's ally Marc Spector turned on him, and Spector was stranded in the desert to die. Spector made his way to the tomb, and believed to be dead by Marlene and her men. They laid his body before Khonshu's statue, but Spector rose to life, calming that Khonshu had resurrected him to serve the cause of vengeance. Donning the statue's cloak, Spector struck back at Bushman and eventually became the crime-fighter Moon Knight. Spector kept Khonshu's statue within his home, its hold on him so strong that when Bushman destroyed the statue, Spector went mad. He only recovered when Marlene provided a substitute statue.